postponement because of heavy snowfall, and the Boxing Day trip to Everton was called off on the morning of the match after frozen pipes within Goodison Park burst. In Birmingham's last match of 2010, Manchester United scored after an hour through Dimitar Berbatov, but in the 89th minute, Žigić appeared to foul Rio Ferdinand as he controlled Johnson's cross with his arm, touching it on to Bowyer who equalised from an arguably offside position. January Birmingham began the new year outplayed by Arsenal by three goals to nil. Television replays highlighted incidents, unnoticed by the referee, in which Bowyer stamped on Bacary Sagna and seemed to rake his studs down the same player's achilles. Suggestions in the media that he might be banned for six matches prompted Alex McLeish to argue that the football authorities were not treating all clubs equally when using television evidence. Bowyer received the standard three-match ban for violent conduct. Birmingham went to Blackpool as the only Premier League team without an away win. After Blackpool lost at St Andrew's in October, manager Ian Holloway had promised that if Birmingham used the same attacking tactics when they came to Bloomfield Road, his players would know how to counter them. He was nearly right. Hleb, returning from injury to play behind Jerome and Matt Derbyshire, scored the opening goal after being gifted the ball in the penalty area. Former Birmingham player DJ Campbell equalised, both sides hit the woodwork, the visitors were particularly profligate in front of goal, but Dann scored an 89th-minute winner with a poacher's finish from Johnson's knock-down. Without Dann, whose hamstring injury sustained in the League Cup first leg was to keep him out for the rest of the season, Ridgewell moved to centre back, David Murphy started at left back, and loanee David Bentley made his debut in the Sunday lunchtime kickoff against Aston Villa. Both teams had chances to win but the 1–1 draw left both teams just outside the relegation zone. The attendance of 22,287 was the lowest for Premier League matches between the clubs. With the League Cup semi-final four days later, Birmingham gave Jordon Mutch a League debut and rested Gardner, Jerome and Larsson as they visited Manchester United. They lost 5–0. February Martin Jiránek made his Premier League debut at home to Manchester City in a match moved to the Wednesday at short notice because City's FA